Keytruda reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 40% compared to chemotherapy. Put another way, patients treated with Keytruda lived for 16.5 months without their tumors starting to grow, compared to 8.2 months for patients treated with chemotherapy.

What investor doesn't want to own a solid company with exciting prospects for business growth in the near- and mid-term? Here we explore a few interesting opportunities ranging from a big pharma name to a pre-revenue biotech. If you want a solid stock that allows you to sleep soundly at night, buy Merck (NYSE: MRK).

Nobody will get preferential access to a potential COVID-19 drug developed by vaccine maker Themis Bioscience, which is being bought by U.S. pharmaceuticals firm Merck & Co Inc, the Austrian firm's chief executive said on Thursday. "Merck has already demonstrated in the past ... that it makes vaccines available to anybody who needs them," Erich Tauber told Reuters on Thursday, adding a potential vaccine would be made available globally. "It is one of the reasons why we have decided to cooperate with Merck."

The three major indexes closed in the green on Tuesday, as investors remained hopeful about coronavirus vaccine and that economies around the globe were recovering from the pandemic-driven lockdown over the past few months.

Merck (MRK) to buy Themis, which is making a COVID-19 vaccine. It is also buying global rights to a private biotech's antiviral candidate, EIDD-2801, which is in early clinical studies to treat COVID-19.

Stocks jumped Tuesday, and the S&P 500 traded above 3,000 for the first time since March 5, as hopes for an effective coronavirus vaccine combined with optimism over updates around states’ reopenings. Each of the S&P 500 and Dow traded above 2% shortly after market open.

Merck & Co Inc <MRK.N>, which has largely kept to the sidelines of the race for COVID-19 treatments, said it was buying Austrian vaccine maker Themis Bioscience and would collaborate with research nonprofit IAVI to develop two separate vaccines. It also announced a partnership with privately held Ridgeback Biotherapeutics to develop an experimental oral antiviral drug against COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Merck did not disclose the terms of the acquisition of Themis, a privately held company.